Items tagged with broadcom
A jury has awarded $1.1 billion in damages to the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) after finding Apple and Broadcom guilty of infringing on its Wi-Fi patents. Apple bears the brunt of the penalty, as it has been ordered to pay $837.8 million in damages, while Broadcom is now legally compelled to fork over $270.2 billion (barring an appeal). Coming off a $91.8 billion quarter, it's best ever, Apple will be just fine after writing a check (if it comes to that). After paying the bills, Apple was left a massive $22.2 billion profit in the three-month period ended December 29. Meanwhile, Broadcom is coming of a quarter in which it earned $5.78 billion in revenue for a profit of $874 million....
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There are bad days, and then there are bad weeks like the one Huawei is having. Amid pressure from the US government to stop doing business with Huawei over spying concerns, several companies have reportedly stopped supplying the Chinese telecom with hardware, including major semiconductor firms such as Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, and Xilinx. This is the latest blow to Huawei and it could have a crushing effect on its business operations. How much bad news Huawei can weather is being put to the test, it seems—over the weekend, Google dealt a major blow to Huawei by effectively yanking its Android license, leaving the company to only use the public version of Android that is available to...
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It's been an incredibly busy few months for Qualcomm, and it appears that the action isn't going to be slowing down anytime soon. In the past week, the US government took a weight off of Qualcomm's shoulders by putting a stop to the Broadcom deal, all in the name of national security. This happened at the same time news of potential Intel interest rose to the surface. With Qualcomm effectively safe from Broadcom, all is well... right? Not so fast. It's clear that with Intel's interest, Qualcomm is a much hotter target than previously anticipated, and for that reason, former CEO (and son of company founder) Paul Jacobs has decided he'd like to take the company private. Being either a public or...
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An updated version of the Raspberry Pi Model B has launched, and this new "Plus" version offers a number of upgrades. The official name is the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and it is on sale now for the same $35 price as the previous version of the developer board. Updates include: A 1.4GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU Dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.2 Faster Ethernet (Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0) Power-over-Ethernet support (with separate PoE HAT) Improved PXE network and USB mass-storage booting Improved thermal management The maximum CPU clock for the B+ is 200MHz higher than the previous version and the wired and wireless network throughput is three times that...
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Well, we can't say that we saw this one coming – at least not so soon. We knew that Broadcom's hostile takeover of Qualcomm was on thin ice, especially considering that the latter thought that the former's offers have greatly undervalued the company. Tonight, however, President Donald J. Trump took matters into his own hands by unilaterally blocking any potential merger or acquisition of Qualcomm via an Executive Order. Broadcom is headquartered in Singapore, but has a significant business presence and offices in the United States. In fact, the company was in the process of relocating its headquarters to the U.S., but the executive order states that there is "credible evidence" that Broadcom...
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Things are a bit complicated in the technology world right now. Broadcom really wants to buy Qualcomm and merge the two coms into one company. The problem for Broadcom so far is that Qualcomm has rejected each of its offers because its wants more money. There is real doubt cast on any deal at any price because the U.S. government is going to scrutinize the deal over potential national security issues due to foreign investment. If Broadcom can convince U.S. regulators that it should be allowed to purchase Qualcomm, an even bigger fish is standing by possibly ready to gobble up Broadcom. A report that started with the Wall Street Journal is making the rounds that claims chip giant Intel is eyeing...
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It appears that Broadcom is looking to get ahead of any potential regulatory concerns that might result from its ongoing aggressive effort to acquire Qualcomm. To quell some of the concerns, Broadcomm inked a letter to Congress assuring members that it has every intention of making the United States a leader in 5G connectivity, and that it would not spend less money on advancing 5G stateside. In addition, Broadcom promised to create to a new $1.5 billion fund to train and education the next generation of radio frequency engineers in the US. The underlying theme of Broadcom's pitch to Congress is that it will make every effort to ensure the US leads the way in wireless technologies, today and...
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Broadcom's courtship of Qualcomm just got a bit more interesting. Broadcom began a hostile bid for Qualcomm late last year, and has largely been rebuffed for its advances. However, in recent weeks, Qualcomm has become more receptive to Broadcom's proposal -- that is if the company can sweeten its offer price and pass regulatory oversight. Unfortunately for Broadcom, that last point is playing out already due to action taken by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). In this case, the CFIUS is stepping in early in the process, and is asking Qualcomm to delay its planned March 6th annual shareholder meeting. The CFIUS is tasked with reviewing acquisitions that could have...
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Broadcom is like a dog with a bone in its attempt to acquire to Qualcomm, first by proposing an unsolicited buyout offer and now through an attempted hostile takeover. Whether or not Broadcom is ultimately successful in its bid to buy Qualcomm remains to be seen. One potential roadblock, however, is how regulators would view a potential deal. The concern isn't that a deal would create a monopoly (or at least that is not the only concern), but what kind of security issues might arise if Broadcom acquired Qualcomm. Citing "two people familiar with the matter," Bloomberg says the Committee on Foreign Investment, a secretive US panel tasked with reviewing whether acquisitions of American companies...
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Will they, or won't they? Qualcomm up until this point has rebuffed all of Broadcom's advances with regards to a hostile takeover. Broadcom made the first move back in November 2017, and followed up with a second offer valuing Qualcomm at roughly $120 billion. Shortly after the second offer was made, Qualcomm responded, "Broadcom proposal materially undervalues Qualcomm and falls well short of the firm regulatory commitment the Board would demand given the significant downside risk of a failed transaction." It appears that Qualcomm is now having second thoughts about the total rejection and is warming up to additional talks with Broadcom. The two companies had a face-to-face on February 23rd...
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Broadcom really wants to buy Qualcomm and merge the two chip giants into one company that would be a major force in the communications market. Broadcom had put forward an offer that valued Qualcomm at $120 billion yesterday and many thought that the company's board would find the offer hard to refuse. However, the Qualcomm board was unanimous in rejecting the $120 billion offer. Qualcomm's board sent Broadcom a letter outlining the reasons why it noped out of the deal, writing, "Broadcom proposal materially undervalues Qualcomm and falls well short of the firm regulatory commitment the Board would demand given the significant downside risk of a failed transaction. " The decline on the $120 billion...
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Even though Qualcomm has never said the company is up for sale, it has been receiving buyout offers from Broadcom, an aggressive suitor that has already dangled an unsolicited bid of $100 billion. That offer was unanimously rejected by Qualcomm's board of directors last November on the basis that it undervalued the company. Fast forward to today and Broadcom is reportedly planning to increase its bid to $120 billion. People who are supposedly familiar with the matter told Reuters that Broadcomm is in the process of finalizing a formal offer that would value Qualcomm between $80 and $82 per share. The previous offer was for $70 per share, broken down into $60 per share in cash and $10 per share...
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Just over a week ago, we first brought you news that Broadcom was preparing an unsolicited offer to purchase Qualcomm. Not long after, Broadcom made its $130 billion offer official, valuing Qualcomm at $70 per outstanding share. "Our proposal provides Qualcomm stockholders with a substantial and immediate premium in cash for their shares, as well as the opportunity to participate in the upside potential of the combined company," said Hock Tan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Broadcom at the time. "This complementary transaction will position the combined company as a global communications leader with an impressive portfolio of technologies and products." Qualcomm has had a week to go...
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Broadcom is hoping to pull of the largest technology transaction of all time in its bid to acquire Qualcomm. The company made an ambitious cash and stock offer valued at around $130 billion, and it stands whether Qualcomm is able to consummate its deal to acquire NXP Semiconductors at $110 per share or not. Either way, Qualcomm now has a big decision to make. It may also try to negotiate an even higher price. The unsolicited proposal from Broadcom comes to $70 per outstanding share, broken down into $60 in cash and $10 per share. That represents a 28 percent over the closing price of Qualcomm's common stock yesterday, the last unaffected trading day prior to media speculation, and a premium of...
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While all of us in the tech world have been focused on Qualcomm's legal showdown with Apple over LTE modem payments, sharing confidential software with rivals, and royalty fees, it appears that there's another chapter in the story that is just being written. According to a new report today, Broadcom is planning an unsolicited bid to acquire Qualcomm. According to sources for Bloomberg, the offer could come as early as this weekend. Qualcomm is a dominant force in the red hot mobile sector, with its Snapdragon processors powering the majority of Android devices sold today. In addition, the company's LTE modems are also used in Android smartphones and tablets and in certain models of Apple's iPhone...
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We've all been there when using GPS on our smartphones. You try and use something like Google Maps to navigate to a place you have never been, and all of a sudden, it's hard to tell if you should be on the feeder road or the highway. You eventually find out after driving too far that you are traveling along the wrong route end up cursing Google Maps. This will be a thing of the past next year when smartphones receive much more accurate GPS chips. How accurate you ask: Down to the inch. The chips that will save us from GPS hell are from Broadcom and the BCM47755 will have accuracy to 30-centimeters compared to the accuracy to 5-meters GPS chips offer today.What's even better is that the BCM47755...
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In the world of integrated circuits, there are some major players that build chips that we use every day may not even realize it. Companies like Broadcom and Qualcomm make integrated circuits that find their way inside the laptops, computers, and smart devices that we use constantly. A name you might not think about being in the same league as those two major players is NVIDIA. Many still think of NVIDIA mostly as a video card maker, and while that might be what gamers like best, there is more to Team Green than video cards and GPUs. NVIDIA has now overtaken MediaTek to become the third largest IC design company in the entire world. Directly ahead of NVIDIA is Qualcomm in second place with Broadcom...
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Researchers from Exodus Intelligence discovered a zero-day attack that threatens most of the popular smartphones on the market today. The hack is called Broadpwn and it affects devices running iOS and Android. Specifically all Samsung Galaxy S3 through Galaxy S8 devices are susceptible as are the Note 3, 6, 6X, and 6P, and the Apple iPhone 5 and up. The vector for the attack is the Broadcom BCM43xx family of Wi-Fi chips used in all of those smartphones. Exodus writes in its research, "Broadpwn is a fully remote attack against Broadcom’s BCM43xx family of WiFi chipsets, which allows for code execution on the main application processor in both Android and iOS. It is based on an unusually powerful...
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If you own a newer iOS device, you are probably going to want to update to iOS 10.3.3 immediately (if you haven’t already done so). Apple’s iOS 10.3.3 update contains a total of 47 security fixes, but one in particular is gaining attention for its ferocity. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2017-9417, better known as Broadpwn. Broadpwn can affect the Wi-Fi chips that are widely installed in iOS and Android devices. More specially, Broadpwn targets the Broadcom BCM4354, 4358 and 4359 Wi-Fi chipsets, and can be remotely activated without any direct interaction from the user to execute cote within the operating system. Apple detailed the exploit in the release notes for iOS 10.3.3, providing...
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Google And Apple Patch Serious Android And iOS Broadcom Wi-Fi Bug That Allowed Remote Execution Hack
Practically everyone who owns a smartphone should be on the lookout for a patch. Both Google and Apple this week released software updates for Android and iOS, respectively, to address a vulnerability discovered in Wi-Fi chipsets developed by Broadcom. If left unpatched, an attacker within range of the same Wi-Fi network could execute malicious code on a person's mobile device. A researcher on Google's Project Zero team discovered the vulnerability and wrote about it in great detail (hit the source link for deep dive into the technical underpinnings of this exploit). Prior to Google releasing a patch for Android, the researcher demonstrated the hack on a fully patched Nexus 6P running Android...
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There are mergers, and then there are mega-mergers, such as the one that Avago Technologies and Broadcom just agreed to. The two chip makers have entered into a definitive agreement for Avago to acquire Broadcom for $37 billion as part of cash and stock deal, making it the largest transaction in the tech industry to date. Under terms of the agreement, Avago will pay Broadcom shareholders $17 billion in cash, giving them a 32 percent stake in the new company. The other $20 billion will be paid in stock. At that price, the two companies combined will have an enterprise value of $77 billion. They can also claim the most diversified communications platform in the semiconductor industry on combined...
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At present, Google and AT&T are the two companies making the most noise about gigabit Internet service for consumers. It's high time other ISPs jump on board as well, don't you think? If you agree, you'll be happy to know that Comcast and Liberty Global (a major ISP in Europe) are two other Internet companies with gigabit service on the roadmap. Broadcom has reportedly begun sampling its first DOCSIS 3.1 chip (BCM93390), which enables gigabit Internet service, as well as makes it possible for consumers to shovel 2Gb/s of wireless data in their homes. In turn, Comcast and Liberty Global have both vowed to support the technology that Broadcom's new chip brings to the table. Neither one promised...
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